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A HERO'S SPARK: the final book in the Wicked Women series!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Appletinis and other things you probably shouldn't inhale right before a book signing.

Good evening!

Well, I did it. I went to my very first real live book signing. It wasn't in my living room. My mother wasn't there. In fact, almost complete strangers came up to the table picked up my book and looked at it! :) Of course, I shared said table with another author, a multi published author who had four different books available for signing. I tried spreading mine out a little to make it look like I had more books, but, really, who was I kidding?

I attended the WisRWA conference this weekend. This was first year that 1) I was an official member of WisRWA, a fact that confounded people I've known for some time now because I've been attending these conferences pretty much without benefit of membership; and 2) my book was out. Which means, I had the rare pairing of special ribbons on my name tag, I was a new member with a first sale.

In celebration of said first sale and the book signing and the fact that I survived pitching a romantic suspense to an agent who, not even 12 hours earlier had pretty much announced he/she wasn't going to be taking another romantic suspense for a LOOOOOOOONG time (Okay, the agent and I both knew how that pitch was going to end, but give me a gold star, I didn't break down and cry at the end.) my good friend and critique partner Linda bought me a drink.

Oh you all know what it was.

Yes, an appletini. I asked for caramel, which probably would have softened the alcoholic blow in my stomach, but they didn't have caramel, so it was a green appletini. And, because I'm a well brought up lady, I returned the favor by buying the second round...half an hour before my real live book signing.

To counteract the effects of two large glasses of pretty much straight vodka, I guzzled an equal amount of water.

And then I went to my first book signing.

Oh we all know how this is going to end, right?

Yep, about half an hour in to the hour long signing, I got a call of nature like never, ever, EVER before. But I can't leave my table. THIS IS MY FIRST BOOK SIGNING!

Oh wait. I'm a complete unknown set between J A Konrath (Arguably the most fun gent to have sitting next to you at a signing) and the erotic authors. (Have you seen the cover of "Dream in color?" It doesn't have quite the BAM factor a good erotica cover does.) So realizing that I wasn't the star of this show (Imagine my chagrin!) I begged one of the erotic ladies to sit in my chair for five minutes whilst I fought my way through a WEDDING reception that stood between me and the blessed haven of the ladies room.

The good news is, I was happily back at my post, and no one was the wiser, minutes later and fully enjoying my very first signing. Oh, and someone bought a copy of my book! I refrained from doing a happy dance right there. I was cool. I said, "And to whom am I making this out?" (Ya like that formal grammar?) You wouldn't have known me from someone who had a stack of different titles, or cover art depicting a nearly naked man wrapped up in what looked like duct tape.

Oh, and if you as an author get the chance to do a signing with other authors, and J.A. Konrath in in the line up, SIT AS CLOSE TO HIM AS YOU CAN! Or, if you see that he's doing a signing, bring the man a beer and just listen to him talk about pretty much anything. You won't regret it.

As for me, I had my first taste of the big time and, my friends, I loved it! Much like selling a book, signing a book with your name (And those "this book belongs to" stickers really don't count) is a high like no other.

Or maybe that's the appletinis talking.

Cheers!

5 comments:

  1. Very! Soooo much fun. I just wish the old writng group could have been there.

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  2. You can fly us all in for the next one...

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  3. If that's going to happen more people are going to have to buy my book!

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  4. I love JA Konrath...cool that you got to site by him. He was at WisRWA? That's funny all by itself.

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